sneak peek: gold teeth brooklyn

jesse and alex moved to new york in the same week in august of 2006, met while working at the same restaurant, became friends and two years later started dating. this is their first home together and a compromise of their two aesthetics and personalities. jesse teamed up with her good friend emily to start gold teeth brooklyn, a greeting card, fine art print and jewelry line, based out of a corner (that can expand) of the apartment. meanwhile, alex is a welder and works for uhuru, a furniture company specializing in sustainable, well designed pieces. he also works alongside a friend building custom bikes, and with a great eye for design and detail has built many of the furniture pieces and shelves around the apartment. enjoy the full post below, and click here for additional images. {thanks jesse and alex!} –anne

[above: The loft building we live in used to be a garment factory. It has these overly varnished wood floors to cover up years of wear, high ceilings with exposed pipes, and all of the windows in the apartment run along one wall. We get wonderful light in the afternoons that allows for long hours of printing. Emily cut and hung the pennants when we had our housewarming party and we loved them so much that they had to stay up! We’ve decorated the place with a mix of new/clean and vintage/playful pieces. We both love collecting objects, and Alex builds beautiful shelves on which to display our many treasures.]

The couch was handed down to me from a good friend. The story goes that it used to belong to Marilyn Monroe, before my friend’s dad picked it up at auction decades later. The egg chair was a gift from my father. When I was a kid I had dreamed of owning one, and just a few years ago I walked out of my apartment around christmas time and found a massive box on my stoop. I bought the pink and white upholstered chair and the coffee table at the Brooklyn Flea.

Alex built this work table and stool for me when I started printing out of our home. They are my absolute favorite pieces because they give me a dedicated work space, and because the set was Alex’s first gift to me.

The ball jars are from the 1800’s, and were given to me by a dear friend now living in Germany. The glass on the right is an old Kodak measuring beaker for photo chemicals. Since I’m also a photographer, I always try to pick up these relics of photo history when I find them.

The table is from the Chelsea flea market. We loved it so much that we carried it on the subway back to Brooklyn. The print on the right is a calendar by Gold Teeth Brooklyn. On the left is a print Emily gave me from the company Ink and Wit.

This is Alex’s maritime themed wall. He goes nuts over anything kitschy and nautical, and one of the first things he did when we moved in was blanket this wall with his finds. Most of the items he’s found at flea markets and thrift stores, though where the rope came from is somewhat of a mystery.

I’m a sucker for Native American patterns, I love how the bright colors perk up the space.

I’ve been collecting globes for years now. My mom has a fabulous flea market near where she lives in Michigan that still has cheap finds. Nearly all of my twenty or so globes are from there. The photo on the left is by Roe Ethridge. I picked it up when i worked at Blind Spot Magazine, a fine art photo magazine that also sells limited edition prints.

The apartment came with scarce counter space, so Alex built this peninsula, as well as the two stools. He used to work as a restaurant cook, and I love to eat, so we both spend a lot of time in the kitchen. On the right are a few jars of his homemade pickled items.

I got our bedspread in Mexico City on a trip with my dad. It’s hand stitched, and I love the rich blue color. The bunny photograph is by Hannah Whitaker, and is another photo from the Blind Spot Editions.

My stepmother brought over the nightstand from Peru when she moved to America many years ago. It’s a little beat up, but I think that just shows it’s history. The vase is from the arts and crafts period and is a Mccoy. Alex made the little wire sculpture for me as a tribute to my love of button down shirts. I like it so much, I’ve placed it so it’s one of the first things I see when I wake up! The little ship in a bottle is precious to me. We have two of them from an arcade, they’re worth nothing, but I really love them.

The jewelry box is an old tool chest that used to house screws and nails; I cleaned it out and it now keeps my jewelry and tiny collections, including tiny light bulbs and wooden duck pins. My dad is a jeweler, so I have a handful of vintage watches from over the years. The Leica was my aunt’s camera for many years. It’s been passed down to me and remains in the family, keeping analog photography alive that much longer! The animal masks are from a vacation Alex and I took with some friends. There were twelve of us on the trip, and one buddy brought along a book he’d recently found of twelve pop-out vintage animal masks. This made for amazing photographs…to say the least.

The print of the strongman is Gold Teeth Brooklyn, and the print of 80’s Queen I bought at Giant Robot.

I have quite a collection of vintage dish towels that I’ve acquired from my mother who has hundreds of them. The stool is from my childhood, and my brother has one as well. One day, I hope to make one for my kid.

I HAVE THAT SAME STOOL!!! My aunt gave it to me when I was a year old and I still have it. Supposedly, my mom did research last year and the company that made these in the 80’s is still around and still makes the same stools. I plan on getting one of these for my kids too (when I have them). :-D

Love, love, love! Especially your bedspread and your work area–what a sweet gift. And, yes, Gold Teeth Brooklyn has the best cards and jewelry. After seeing them at NSS, I just bought their pencil necklace for my math teacher friend’s birthday with a matching pencil card to boot! Can’t wait to give it to her.

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